Various application programs are provided in accordance with the types of data because different data types such as a character, table, and image require different structures for defining these data and different editing operations for these data. The user must use different applications for different data types: a character processing program for editing of characters, a spreadsheet program for editing of tables, and an image editing programs for editing of images.
The user generally uses an application program corresponding to each data type. However, a document to be created by the user is usually not a document made up of only one type of data such as only characters, tables, or images, but a document made up of a plurality of types of data such as characters and tables or characters and images. In order to create a target document containing a plurality of types of data, the user utilizes the print functions of various applications, prints data by using the applications, and combines printed materials in a desirable order. A program called “Office Suite” which is currently available and forms one integrated application from various applications provides a function of combining data generated by respective applications into one document. The use of the integrated application allows the user to combine data created by respective applications into one target document by using a specific application included in the integrated application.
In recent years, there is proposed a system which generates one integrated document from documents generated by arbitrary applications while applications used to create original documents to be integrated are not limited to one like “Office Suite” (see, e.g., patent reference 1).
[Patent Reference 1] Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-091380
In a conventional document integration application, when an integrated document (book file) is once generated from documents generated by arbitrary applications, the contents of the generated integrated document cannot be changed. Assume that a plurality of document files are combined into one document in such a document processing system. Although the entire document need not be changed, part of the document needs to be modified in many cases. For example, if mistakes are found in a created material for a council, board, or the like, document pages with the deficiencies must often be replaced. In this case, to replace the document pages, the system disclosed in patent reference 1 must execute a sequence of generating again an integrated document from the document pages to be replaced and causing the user to set again the attributes of chapters in the generated integrated document. This operation is wasteful from the viewpoint of the processing efficiency as it increases the manufacturing cost resulting from an elongated operation time.